Jews in Palestine October 23 2012 135 642 Brief chronological overview Consequences of the revolts Developments in Judaism Jews of Mesopotamia Jews of Palestine With the shift to the post 135 period our sense of historical chronology is weaker and more scattered From this moment on we will spend more time on the diaspora rather than on Israel It is very difficult to come up with a specific time range for the diaspora I Brief chronological overview a Two legions in Palestine until III IV CE i VI Ferrata at Legio X Fretensis at Jerusalem b Ca 200 Editing of the Mishnah c 224 New Sasanian dynasty in Persia and Mesopotamia d 324 Constantine Emperor in East conversion 312 Christianity goes from persecuted to tolerated to sanctioned and supported e 438 Theodosian Code Roman Law Code recorded laws from Constantine f 529 Justinian Code Roman Law Code went back into earlier laws codes are important because they tell us about the inner working of the roman empire at this time trace the transformation of the position of Jews First century Jews were problematic How does a Christian state govern a group of people who actively rejected Christ or participated in his crucifixion As the population becomes mainly Christian Jews become a different category of subjects g 602 608 Roman Byzantine Sasanid wars i 614 Sasanians seize Jerusalem ii 630 True Cross restored to Jerusalem h 636 7 Palestine i 642 Persia Muslim conquests Jerusalem and Persia have fallen into Muslim hands Roman and Sasanid Near East II a Sasanid Empire North East of Israel modern day Iraq Iran III Consequences of the Revolts in Palestine a End of any state like institutions temple high priesthood were gone instead Palestine was reconstituted b Reconstituted like a conventional province i Land divided into urban territories a city and its aristocratic ruling class constitute the city officers and policers governing responsibilities for that urabn territory rise of urbanism ii Power more dispersed not assigned to Jews c Period of restrictive policies and persecution i Jewish tax Nerva issued a coin 96 97 calumny of the Jewish tax lifted ii Permission to circumcise explicitly affirmed in 150 1 Gives the Roman state interest in determining who was was not Jewish iii Lasting restrictions on Jews in around Jerusalem d Jewish population decline redistribution On the surface Judea looks a lot like any other province And what s remarkable are some of the changes that take place in late antiquity emergence of synagogues and earlier the fact that we have a literature in Hebrew or Aramaic that is meant for locals gives us some insight into how some Jews within this province understood their place in the world Part of the population understood what it meant to be part of the Roman empire IV Jews in Palestine Late Antiquity Jews predominate in E Galilee part of the Golan and the South a b Population declined as proportion and absolutely c Number of jews declined as a proportion but as a whole continued to grow Jews of Mesopotamia V a Reportedly large thought descended from original Judean exiles b Attested in the north and central region c 200 development of Resh Galuta head of the exile Role status murky does is predate the Sasanian regime d Evidence i Christian works north ii Talmud central iii Magical bowls